Watch and listen to his postgame comments in the embedded media player below:

Quotes after the jump.

Tom Crean

On the number of Indiana fans at Northwestern today:

“It was as much of a home-crowd feeling that you can possibly get on the road, there’s no doubt about that. They were outstanding, they were loud, they were vocal, they were really great.”

On the team’s defense today:

“I think one thing that doesn’t get brought very much – we’re in the top 10 in field goal percentage offense, I think would most people wouldn’t be shocked by that, but we’ve been in the top 10 in field goal percentage defense for some time. A lot of times when the nay-sayers start kicking it out and bringing up all of the negatives, they forget to mention that. And it’s important for our guys to understand that and it’s important for our guys to understand that they are pretty good when they really lock into what they need to do. We made some mistakes in the second half with a very hard team to play against. There are a couple basic rules that you have to have, but the problem with a team like Northwestern, they keep coming and coming and coming with the screens. But our defense was really good. We had a couple of different things that we wanted to do today defensively, depending on who is on the floor, and we did it. Our communication was good. But the just keep coming at you and our guys did too. Not only did we defense pretty well, not as great in the second half, but when they bell needed to be answered, we came down and scored three straight buckets.”

On finding a way to win on the road:

“I hope every body understands – that’s three-straight wins on the road. I don’t care where they’re at. When you’re in any league, but especially a league like this and you go out and you find a way to win on the road, that’s a big, big deal. Our guys did it and they deserve it, and they’ve had an excellent week knowing that we have a big week in front of us.”

On Christian Watford and Cody Zeller’s performances:

“Christian really got us going. When we can find a match-up that works when they really can’t defend Christian, we’ve got to ride it as much as we can and we did. It was really important that we never forget that Christian and Cody have got to touch the ball. We had a statistic in the first half where 22 times we got the ball in the paint, we had 29 points. There were five times where we didn’t get the ball in the paint and we only had two points out of that. To me that’s that it is for us. We’ve got to have that. We’ve got to get points out of that. It’s not about who’s getting them, it’s about are we getting in there and are we making plays out of it.”

Third road win..great..hard to come by..agree..showed some toughness at the end with 3 straight buckets…true.. But if IU coming in there..dominating the first half..nearly blowing it the second half..and winning by 8 is a “big deal”..I wonder how he would describe Michigan’s 28 point blow out of the same team on the same court?

SCHoosier

Third road win..great..hard to come by..agree..showed some toughness at the end with 3 straight buckets…true.. But if IU coming in there..dominating the first half..nearly blowing it the second half..and winning by 8 is a “big deal”..I wonder how he would describe Michigan’s 28 point blow out of the same team on the same court?

Crean is a positive person. He refuses to allow too much negativity in. Not quite CBK.

IU ED

No zone offense. What does he teach in practice? No real half court offense. SASSY CREAN GETS OFFENSIVE WHEN ASKED ABOUT IT.

IU ED

No zone offense. What does he teach in practice? No real half court offense. SASSY CREAN GETS OFFENSIVE WHEN ASKED ABOUT IT.

REV D

Thought CTC’s reactions were a bit harsh. You can’t lead a successful
organization surrounded by “yes” men. Time to swallow some pride and
realized that to win a championship you have to have a dynamic team. We
have too many smart players to not have a half court game in our pocket
when we need it. I agree with our coach’s choice to be a dribble drive
team because we have the talent to do play it. However, there are teams
that realize that the dribble drive is a single faceted offense and
very easy to prepare against. CTC is a smart man and I believe pride is
getting in his way for course correction. The Wisconsin game exposed
that. Heard a rumor that he helped Izzo prepare for U of L years back
in Indy, we need that wizard for our games. Time to start watching film
of our team like every other team out there is doing when the prepare
for us. There are gaps that need to be filled. I am optimistic that
our coach and team can do it.

SCHoosier

I understand that..love the way he coaches kids when he takes them out after a poor play. He’ll get in their face..but explains the problem and how to correct it ..all good. I don’t like his “neck up” style when some one asks a legitimate question about lack of performance by HIS Hoosiers. If a reporter said “What was wrong with your offense against their zone”..that would be one thing..but usually the media is smart enuff to say something like..”Can you discuss the issues you had with NW’s zone in the second half.” TC is prone to come back at the guy…blow it off..or just repeat the positives. I dig that..but its does impact his credibility long term IMO. TC is first and always a “glass half full guy.” But at times you need to explain why the water in that glass gets murkey on occassion..

Sam Hollan

Yea, I’m not sure why so many coaches are as defensive as they are with the press. Answer the question and if they ask it again then put them in their place. It was a legit question. Would prefer Coach Crean rise above the petty nonsense.

beckrw

Crean was a little defensive and amateurish in a couple of his responses tonight. Letting teams back into games and not matching the same output/intensity in the second half as the first is becoming a recurring issue and therefore a legit question. He had a curt reply for the guy that asked it (Dustin Doporik?) then proceeded to follow it up with another kind of cutting remark when it sounded like the guy was leaving the room. Tough questions come with the territory when expectations are high. Get used to it and handle all questions with the grace and dignity that the fanbase expects.

While this is concerning, I hope some of Crean’s press conference frustration is with the bench. This has to be the 5th or 6th ineffective/unproductive game in a row. Not sure where to begin – maybe with Will and Remy’s first shots of the game. They were both stunningly awful.

While this is concerning, I hope some of Crean’s press conference frustration is with the bench. This has to be the 5th or 6th ineffective/unproductive game in a row. Not sure where to begin – maybe with Will and Remy’s first shots of the game. They were both stunningly awful.

SCHoosier

Maybe he just doesn’t get that because of all the hype..some of which TC helped create..by running up the score with starters in the game late against the cupcakes…that expectations are soooo much higher. If that had been a nationally televised game..with say Bilas and somebody else doing the commenting…what do you think they would have said about IU’s performance against that zone. Doubt if coach would have liked it much.

Benhyoung14

If I was Coach Crean I would get tired of the IU media and fans that know more about basketball than a Div I coach.

IUMIKE1

Well put. Thought Crean was unnecessarily short and snippy when taking a couple of the questions. “What’s your point”, seems to be his favorite way of dealing with any question that he doesn’t like. I think he is putting one thing out there for public consumption but behind the scenes sees the same problems that a lot of us see, and is undoubtably even more frustrated by them than we are. When at the after the game presser he chooses to frame it one way publicly when he knows that it isn’t really that way, then OK, but when he answers certain questions like he does he might as well just say, ” I know we have some glaring problems but there is no way I’m going to admit that publicly “, cause when he interrupts the reporter in the middle of his question with, “so what’s your point”, & ends his answer with, “make sure you write that part too”, and both are said with a real how dare you ask that question tone, it says exactly that for him, IMHO. If he wants the good things that come with having the head coaching job at IU he has to understand that at this job he can’t just pick & choose everything that is asked or done and a great deal of scrutiny comes along with it like it or not. Reporters and especially the fans, are knowledgeable enough to see when there is a problem with certain aspects of the team’s game and expect the coach to tell us how he intends to fix it, not act as if the problem doesn’t exist. It’s not like it’s going unnoticed by the teams he is going to be playing in the future and talking about it is telling them something that they didn’t already know.

IUMIKE1

Well put. Thought Crean was unnecessarily short and snippy when taking a couple of the questions. “What’s your point”, seems to be his favorite way of dealing with any question that he doesn’t like. I think he is putting one thing out there for public consumption but behind the scenes sees the same problems that a lot of us see, and is undoubtably even more frustrated by them than we are. When at the after the game presser he chooses to frame it one way publicly when he knows that it isn’t really that way, then OK, but when he answers certain questions like he does he might as well just say, ” I know we have some glaring problems but there is no way I’m going to admit that publicly “, cause when he interrupts the reporter in the middle of his question with, “so what’s your point”, & ends his answer with, “make sure you write that part too”, and both are said with a real how dare you ask that question tone, it says exactly that for him, IMHO. If he wants the good things that come with having the head coaching job at IU he has to understand that at this job he can’t just pick & choose everything that is asked or done and a great deal of scrutiny comes along with it like it or not. Reporters and especially the fans, are knowledgeable enough to see when there is a problem with certain aspects of the team’s game and expect the coach to tell us how he intends to fix it, not act as if the problem doesn’t exist. It’s not like it’s going unnoticed by the teams he is going to be playing in the future and talking about it is telling them something that they didn’t already know.

MillaRed

Well said Mike. It’s pretty simple really. We are blowing leads. This is a certainty. We did it again, and it was the opposing coaches 1-3-1 that got them back in. A scheme we had no answer for. No one knows this better than CTC. And he just isn’t great at defending himself. The journalists are doing their jobs. They write for the fans. The fans pay the bills. Seems like he is doing more harm than good by publicly embarrassing them.

MillaRed

Well said Mike. It’s pretty simple really. We are blowing leads. This is a certainty. We did it again, and it was the opposing coaches 1-3-1 that got them back in. A scheme we had no answer for. No one knows this better than CTC. And he just isn’t great at defending himself. The journalists are doing their jobs. They write for the fans. The fans pay the bills. Seems like he is doing more harm than good by publicly embarrassing them.

Don

People – are we really worrying about what CTC says about “press” questions. I for one – think the press is more of a problem then anything! Listen – these young men are just that “young men”. They go out and represent the school, and university in a well dignified manner. They are still winning (albeit not well enough for some). Get over your big heads – support the organization. Remember you can always jump on another ship that is sailing!!!

Benhyoung14

Same thing can be said about a motion offense. Install a zone and its done. Why do you think RMK hated it so much? The thing that concerns me most is our bench. Why has it been so bad? CTC doesn’t have all of his pieces in place yet, and then there is the injury bug. I hope Elston can be productive, and HMP can play smarter. Yogi is still a Freshmen, and doesn’t know how to attack a zone.

Earl Scheib

Hopefully, our players will be as defensive as he was in this interview.